Improvement in setting stills



vention, we will proceed to describe UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

G. T. SAVYER, W'. HO\VLAND, JR., AND T. C. HATCH, OF NEW BEDFORD,

MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN SETTING STILLS.

Specilicntion forming part of Letters Patent No. 33,905, dated December 10, 1861.

.To all whom it may concern u Be it known that we, GIDEON T. ,SAWYEIL WESTON HOWLAND, J r. and THATCHER C. HATCH, of New Bedford, in the county of Bristol and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Setting i of Stills, lRet-Orts, and Kettles; and we do l 3 is a horizontal section in the line y y of Fig. 1.

'Similar letters ot' reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures.

{The object of our invention is vto obtain a uniform heat under all parts of the bottom of a still, retort, or kettle; and oury invention consist-s in the arrangement near the outer edge of the bottom of the still, retort, or kettle of a series of diving-fines communicating with a ilue which runs allround the setting at, below, or near the level of the lower part of the rechamber, and connects with the main iue or chimney, substantially as hereinafter specilied.

To enable others to make and use our i11- its construction and operation.

YA is the still. B is the setting. C is the .fire-chamber under the bottom of the still. I D D are the drop-dues, of which there may be any number descending vertically, or nearly so, from the upper part of the re-chamber near the outer edge ofthe bottom of the still. The

' dues D must be all'of equal dimensions; and

E is the connecting-flue running round the setting B on a levelwith the lower part of the .rechamber from ashort distance from one side of the fire-door F to within a correspond ing distance from the outer side of the firedoor, as shown inFig. 3. .This liuc connects ulating, cleaning out, and Vcooling off the st ill.

By the above .arrangementvof ues the following ciect is produced: When the fire is burning under the center of the still, the draft is produced in every direction -from the center toward the outer edges 4of the fire-chamber, thus distributing the heatbver the whole of the bottom of the-still. Now, notwithstanding that the tendencyT of the natural' draft of the chimney isto produce a uniform draft in'all of the dues D D, it willsometimes happen that the fire burns better on one side of the fire-chamber, or that, 'from some other1 cause, the fire-chamber gets hotter on one side, and consequently the heat of the dues D D and of the gases Within them will be greater on thatl side than on the opposite side; but as the tendency of the hottest gases is always greater to' rise, the air in the least-heated flues D D will fall the quickest, thus cau-sing a larger quantity of heated air and gases to be be drawn off fromthe cooler side of the fire-chamber and through the cooler dues, and in that waythe heat is caused to be equalized on every part ofthe bottom of the still.

The above action is precisely the reverse of what takes place when two lor more iues lead upward from a tire, for whenever one ormore tlucs become more, heated than another or the others the upward draft will become stronger in that or those ues, andmore heated air will pass, thus causing the heat and draft to` be'further increased until there will be little or no draft in the cooler flue or tlues.

Vhat we claim as our invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, ise The arrangement of the equal drop-dues D with the vessel A, connecting-due E, and chimney G, as herein shown anddescribed.

GIDEON T. SAWYER. WESTON HOWLAND, Jr. THATCHER C. HATCH.

Xlitnesses:

'WILMOT LEWIS,

DANTEL SULLIVAN. 

